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Rosie the Riveter
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Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in war factories during World War II, many of whom worked in the manufacturing plants that produced munitions and materiel. These women took new jobs and sometimes the places of the male workers who were in the military. The character is now considered a feminist icon in the US, and a herald of women's economic power to come.
e the Riveter was most closely associated with a real woman, Rose Will Monroe, who was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1920 and moved to Michigan during World War II.
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Encyclopedia
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in war factories during World War II, many of whom worked in the manufacturing plants that produced munitions and materiel. These women took new jobs and sometimes the places of the male workers who were in the military. The character is now considered a feminist icon in the US, and a herald of women's economic power to come.
History
Rosie the Riveter was most closely associated with a real woman, Rose Will Monroe, who was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1920 and moved to Michigan during World War II. She worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, building B-29 and B-24 bombers for the U.S. Army Air Forces. Monroe was asked to star in a promotional film about the war effort at home, and was featured in a poster campaign. The song "Rosie the Riveter" by Kay Kyser was released in early 1943, and Monroe happened to best fit the description of the worker depicted in the song. Rosie went on to become perhaps the most widely recognized icon of that era. The films and posters she appeared in were used to encourage women to go to work in support of the war effort.
According to the Encyclopedia of American Economic History, the "Rosie the Riveter" movement increased the number of working American women to 20 million by 1944, a 57% increase from 1940. Although the image of "Rosie the Riveter" reflected the industrial work of welders and riveters during World War II, the majority of working women filled non-factory positions in every sector of the economy. In 1942, just between the months of January and July, the estimates of the proportion of jobs that would be "acceptable" for women was raised by employers from 29 to 85%.
Conditions were sometimes harsh and pay was not always equal—the average man working in a wartime plant was paid $54.65 per week, while women were paid about $31.50per week. Nonetheless, women quickly responded to Rosie the Riveter, who convinced them they had a patriotic duty to enter the workforce. Some claim that she forever opened up the work force for women, but others dispute that point, noting that many women were discharged after the war and their jobs given to returning servicemen.
After the war, the "Rosies" and the generations that followed them knew that working in the factories was in fact a possibility for women, even though they did not reenter the job market in such large proportions again until the 1970s—by that time factory employment was in decline all over the country.
On October 14, 2000, the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park was opened in Richmond, California, site of four Kaiser shipyards, where thousands of "Rosies" from around the country worked (although ships at the Kaiser yards were not riveted, but rather welded). Over 200 former Rosies attended the ceremony.
The documentary film The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter addresses the history of Rosie.
Shirley Karp
In 1943-1945, Shirley Karp (who was the original Rosie during 1939-1941) revived her role as Rosie the Riveter. She was paid $6 to model. Two of her most famous photos were treading on a book written by Adolf Hitler, and in a U.S fighter (with another woman fueling up the plane). During her tenure as Rosie, Shirley was part of the movement that motivated over 11 million women to join in World War II, by either fueling jets, making guns for soldiers, or doing other service in the war effort. Shirley Karp passed away on January 12, 2009 at the age of 85, from a diabetic shock. Until her death, she was the oldest living Rosie the Riveter model.
Popular images
The image most iconically associated with Rosie is J. Howard Miller's famous poster for Westinghouse, entitled We Can Do It!, which was modeled on Michigan factory worker Geraldine Doyle in 1942. While the poster appeared before the Rosie term became popular, the poster itself became emblematic of Rosie. Starting in the 1970s the poster became an icon for feminists and has been reprinted on posters, magazine covers, and many other items." Norman Rockwell used the Rosie name for his cover for the May 29, 1943 Saturday Evening Post, which depicted a different model (Mary Doyle Keefe). It is not clear whether Rockwell had seen the Miller poster, but he admitted that "I made a mistake in the detail that people will be calling me down for. The cover shows Rosie with goggles on and a risinglass protective shield." Keefe was paid $5 a day for two mornings' sittings. On May 22, 2002, Rockwell's painting of Rosie the Riveter was auctioned by Sotheby's for $4,959,500.
Homages
According to Colman's Rosie the Riveter, there was also, very briefly, a "Wendy the Welder" based on Janet Doyle, a worker at the Kaiser Richmond Liberty Shipyards in California.
In the 1960s, Hollywood actress Jane Withers gained fame as "Josephine the Plumber," a character in a long-running and popular series of television commercials for "Comet" cleansing powder that lasted into the 1970s. This character was based on the original "Rosie" character and thus owes much to exemplary women's efforts in the traditional male workplace.
More recent cultural references include a character called "Rosie" in the video game BioShock, armed with a rivet gun, and a Rosie the Riveter action figurine by Accoutrements, although this is loosely based on Miller's anonymous poster, rather than Rockwell's painting.
See also
Footnotes
External links
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